First meal in Seoul – KOREAN BBQ

Yeeeeees, the first article about food 🙂 Let’s start folks.
So after we slept for a few hours at the hotel we are finally ready to conquer the korean cusine 😀 Of course we read and watched a lot about, but it’s always better to make your own impression. Especially when we are talking about food right ?! Wanted to stay near our hotel, so we walked down and looked around. Fortunately we were located near „Myeongdong“, the well known shopping district in Seoul. There a lot restaurants around us, so we picked the next best with reasonable prices.

You already know what I really wanted to try first… KOREAN BBQ…Tell me what’s better than barbecuing some pork belly (삼겹살 – samgyeopsal) and eat it with a lot of side dishes (반찬 – banchan). The sizzling sound when the meat touches the hot plate. The smell when the bacon gets crispier and crispier, combined with grilled onions, mushroom and garlic. GREAT 😀

How do we eat „samgyeopsal“ ?! – Wrap it !!!
First, take a lettuce and a perilla leaf, put some sauce (쌈장 – ssamjang), a piece of meat, a garlic glove and some side dishes on it. Then just wrap the whole thing and eat it in one bite. All the different aromas and textures are getting mixed together. It’s like an explosion of flavors in your mouth. The best thing about it, you can put anything you like on it. It really doesn’t matter, so just try your own creations and combinations. Just sit back, relax and enjoy your food 🙂

Ahhh, every restaurant has its own „banchan s“. So the side dishes varied from place to place. There is always fermented and pickled cabbage called kimchi (김치). So many variations to write about it, but actually they pickle every kind of vegetable. Sometimes you see cucumbers, carrots or even eggplants. You can find some spicy, salty or sweet side dishes. All of them are really delicious so don’t be scared and try them all!
The sauce, ssamjang, is a mixture of fermented soybean paste (된장 – doenjang), red pepper paste (고추장 – gochujang), sesame oil (참기름 – chamgireum), onions and garlic. It has a very unique taste, kinda light fermented, salty and spicy, even sweet sometimes.
I think my girlfriend really likes Korean BBQ 😀 You can see on the left, some side dishes like kimchi and pickled green onions. At the bottom you can see the dipping sauce and a miso soup. On the right there are some lettuce and perilla leaves to wrap everything. In the center of the picture you are seeing the hot plate with some pork belly, onions and garlic on it. Sooooo DELICIOUS 😀